The Family Under The Bridge

The motif of pride recurs throughout the novel. When Madame Calcet arrives the first night and declares that the family “are not beggars” because she has a job, Armand thinks, “this woman’s trouble was pride, and that pride and life under the bridge weren’t going to work out well together” (19). Despite this wisdom, Armand himself is a proud man. When Monsieur Latour suggests that Armand and the children don’t belong in the Louvre department store, Armand affects his haughtiness and insults the store itself (35). Later, when Madame Calcet forbids the children to have anything to do with Armand, he “proudly [rises] to his knobby shoes” and speaks “haughtily” in response to her (47). This sets up Armand and Madame Calcet as foils: similar in character but opposite in approach. Pride, Armand thinks, is what keeps a family like the Calcets from begging—and thus from surviving without a home. In contrast, Armand takes pride in the very lifestyle that others look down upon. He defends his friends as well, such as when he claims that the Roma people have a “right” to be proud of their “fine metalwork” (71). He challenges Madame Calcet’s view of the Roma people and asks if she can “mend a pan that has half of the bottom burned out” (71), showing that he sees worth in aspects of life that mainstream society overlooks.